Celebration breakfast to follow
RSVP on the Convention Website at WLCJ.ORG
On July 17, 30 women will be called to the Torah during the morning services on Monday of Convention to celebrate their B’not Mitzvah. They will lead the service, and many will read Torah for the first time. These women first came together almost three years ago, responding to an announcement in Women’s League Week that we would be starting an adult Bat Mitzvah class. They came for many reasons—Some are Jews by choice and are just starting their Jewish Journey, some women had a Bat Mitzvah at 12 or 13 in congregations that were not egalitarian. They may have had their Bat Mitzvah on a Friday night or were not allowed up on the bimah, and some women joined the class for Torah Lishmah—learning for the sake of learning. For the past two and a half years, we have met every month, on Thursday nights, for ninety minutes to study, mostly with amazing rabbis in the Conservative movement, sometimes with our amazing Women’s League rabbis or members. We would like to thank all our teachers for helping these women reach this special day.
The women prepared for each class by reading required texts or handouts, thinking about questions provided by the teachers in advance and, recently, writing Divrei Tefillah on prayers from the morning service. The classes were thought-provoking, and sparked discussion and many questions. After all, ours is a religion based on asking questions. One of the requirements for the class was that all our students know the aleph-bet and be able to read basic prayerbook Hebrew. We started a series of Hebrew classes and many women participated. When you hear them lead their prayers on Zoom or from the bimah, or you hear them read Torah, you would never know that some of them did not know any Hebrew when they started this class. We would like to acknowledge the 14 volunteer Hebrew teachers that shared their knowledge and love of the language over the past three years, and we would like to thank Rabbi Cella for teaching trope to the class.
Like other groups within Women’s League, our Bat Mitzvah students have created a Zoom community, and many will be meeting in person at Convention for the first time. They will truly be Sisters Celebrating Together, and we hope you will celebrate them too. Join us on Monday morning, place an ad in the virtual journal to celebrate their accomplishments, and make sure to say Mazal Tov and Yishar Kochech to:
| Lilian Gradofsky – BQLI
Judith Karlin – BQLI Lisa Bloom – CGL Sandra Carleton – CGL Esther Hellman – CGL Marlene Ostrow – CGL Eileen Barberi – FLR Anne Schimberg – FLR Carol Simon – FLR Karen Winer – FLR Jill Tomar – FLR & CGL Nancy Goldberg – FLR & MAR Deborah Malafsky – ICR Laurie Atlas Silverblatt – ICR Corinne Hammerschlag – INR |
Ruth Shapiro – INR
Marion Tully – INR Sandy Berenbaum – MAR Denise Brand – MAR Faye Laveson – MAR Illene Rubin – MAR Madelon Sheff – MAR Sheila Gersh – Metro North Arlene Schwartz – NAR Dana Sirkin – NXNW Shelliyah Iyomahan – Seaboard Elissa Kon – Seaboard Edith Magruder – Seaboard Jerilynn Payne – Seaboard Arlene Fisher – Southern |
If you would like to see yourself on this list in three years, whatever your reason for joining, watch for the announcement about the next Bat Mitzvah class which will start this Fall.
See you in Schaumburg!
Julia Loeb
WLCJ Education Co-Chair
jloeb@wlcj.org
Ellen Kaner Bresnick
WLCJ Education Co-Chair
ebresnick@wlcj.org
520 8th Ave., 4th Floor, New York, NY 10018 | Phone: 405-870-1260 | info@wlcj.org
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